Method and System for the Creating, Managing, and Delivery of Feed Formatted Content

ABSTRACT

The invention provides methods for creating, managing, and delivery of feed formatted content. One method includes: receiving a multimedia playlist request including at least one multimedia location indicator, determining at least one multimedia file location based on the at least one multimedia location indicator, and providing a multimedia playlist including at least one of the determined multimedia file locations. A further method includes: sending an authentication request to an authentication node including a first set of user identification information, receiving an authentication reply from the authentication node, providing multimedia location information, receiving a multimedia content request from a user node including a second set of user identification information, determining content ownership based on the first and second sets of user identification information, and providing the multimedia content based on the content request and the determination. A further method includes receiving a resize input, resizing a feed reader from a first display including a first number of feed items to a second display including a second number of feed items based on the resize input, the first number different from the second number, receiving a scroll request, determining a scroll number based on the second number, and scrolling based on the determination.

RELATED APPLICATION DATA

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser.No. 60/710,030 filed on Aug. 18, 2005. This application claims thebenefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/737,214 filed onNov. 16, 2005. This application also claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/652,283 filed on Feb. 11, 2005. Thisapplication claims the benefit of PCT Serial No. PCT/US2005/027659 filedAug. 4, 2005. The entirety of each application is hereby incorporated byreference

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to feed formatted content. Morespecifically, the present invention relates to the creation, management,display, tracking, and monetization of feed formatted content and socialnetworking.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The networked world, particularly the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW),has provided numerous communication formats. Two of the most ubiquitousinclude email and HTML web pages. Over the past several years, there hasbeen an increased adoption and development of feed formatted content asa method of communication.

FIG. 1 shows representative feed formatted content 100. FIG. 1 is anexample of XML, and specifically RSS, however it should be understoodthat other types of feed formatted content may contain like elements andbe employed to accomplish like functions. Feed formatted content isstructured data, such as for example Electronic Data Interchange (EDI),Extensible Markup Language (XML), or a subset of a general format suchas RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication), a hybrid orextension of some such standard, or the like. Feed formatted content 100may be publicly or privately available and accessed through a feed, viaa local or remote URL, stored in a local file, or the like. The termfeed formatted content is a descriptor of both a whole and parts, inthat it may describe an entire feed, a portion of a feed, a feed item,or a portion of a feed item. The term feed formatted content may also beused to describe content that was previously transferred in feed format.The term feed is location and the data returned when a request for feedformatted content is made.

Feed formatted content may include a feed header 101. In one embodiment,feed header 101 includes a header labeling feed formatted content 100 asXML data, and further provides two element wrappers: rss and channel.Fead header 101 may include a feed title 102 that names the feed, a feedlink 103 that provides a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) or UniformResource Locator (URL) to a resource that may be associated with thefeed, a feed description 104 that may provide an explanation of the feedor feed contents. A feed header is not required in feed formattedcontent, and may contain less information than described, or may containadditional information such as standards used, format extensions,namespaces, or the like.

Feed formatted content 100 often represents multiple items, as isdisplayed in FIG. 1. Each feed item 106 may represent one or more newsheadlines, events, search results, items for sale or any other data.Feed item 106 may contain any number of elements. For example, it mayinclude a title element 107, link element 108, and a description element109. A feed item is not required in feed formatted content, and maycontain less information than described, or may contain additionalinformation such as content section wrapper 110, optional namespaceelements 111 such as those in the xCal Document Type Definition (DTD),one or more enclosures 112 such as multimedia files, text documents,executable files, or the like. Terms have been adopted to describe feedformatted content with certain content. For example, a podcast is feedformatted content that includes an audio file as an enclosure 112, and aphotoblog is a feed that includes images either in the descriptionelement 109 or as one or more enclosures 112.

Feed formatted content may be created for communicating betweenprograms, computers or companies without the intention of display to anend user. Feed aggregation and display can be achieved in several ways.For example, aggregators may be stand alone desktop applications,plugins to existing applications such as Microsoft Outlook, orapplications on a wireless device such as a cell phone or PDA. Desktopsoftware solutions are commercially available, for example, under thenames Pluck, and FeedDemon. Using such programs, feed requests are madedirectly from the desktop software from an end user's computer. Aweb-based approach, for example, is available at the website maintainedunder the commercial name Bloglines. This website maintains feedsubscription information in a central user database and feed requestsare made by a remote server and displayed on the Bloglines website.

One problem with current aggregator solutions is that it is oftendifficult or impossible to manage feed formatted content across variousaggregator interfaces. For example, one might maintain a subscriptionlist for wireless access of feed formatted content separately from asubscription list for a web-based aggregator. The problem becomes moresignificant if one considers maintaining records of what feed formattedcontent has been viewed, read or recommended across various deliveryplatforms. Many services peripheral to feed formatted content may alsobe useful to maintain over various delivery platforms, such as contactlists, calendars, and the like, but again solutions are either currentlyunavailable or inadequate.

Many aggregators show titles, similar to the news or information pagesof any standard website. Often the information on aggregator sites or inaggregator programs, collectively aggregators, has been aggregated frommultiple sources, however this is not required. An aggregator as apresentation method may still require a user to selectively viewindividual titles from a collection of titles. From the presentationstandpoint, it may be unclear what the user did or did not read, letalone see. One of the purported uses of aggregators is that anaggregator allows a user to specify only the information they wish toreceive, simplifying and filtering the information displayed to them.However, as the number of subscriptions increases or as more informationis posted to subscribed feeds, the amount of information a user may bepresented with may become overwhelming. A method of filtering orprioritizing subscribed information is therefore desirable.

Feed formatted content is generally designed for transfer over networksand between computers, but transfer of information between users isstill not adequately addressed. For example, a user who has read a feeditem that they found to be interesting or useful may wish to make thatopinion known. Currently, a user might copy link element 108 and post iton another website, or might send it using an email program. It would beuseful to make tracking responses, creating and processingrecommendations, and generally transferring feed formatted contentbetween individuals easier.

Directories and search engines of feed formatted content exist,published or maintained by various individuals and groups. However,awareness of what kinds of information and specific information sourcesare available as feed formatted content remains low. Additionally, anindividual may not be able to identify the sorts of information they maybe interested in receiving. Generally, finding and subscribing to feedformatted content continues to be a difficult and confusing task formany individuals. It would be useful to create a method that allows auser to find feed formatted content to which one may subscribe.

In recent years, several web-based social networks have arisen. A socialnetwork may be defined in a few ways. A social network is a list ofrelationships between one individual and other individuals. A socialnetwork may also refer to a recordation of such a list in a database. Asocial network may also refer to a system of recording the relationshipsbetween individuals. Web-based social networks are based on the creationof a user account within the social network and the recordation anddisplay of relationships between the user accounts. One problem withcurrent social networks is that they are isolated a particular socialnetwork service. For example, a user of Friendster, a commerciallyavailable social network at http://www.friendster.com/, may set up anaccount at MySpace, another commercially available social network athttp://www.myspace.com/. The relationships recorded at Friendster arenot available at MySpace. Another problem is that social networks arelimited in use on their own. It would be useful to incorporate otherservices within a social network to increase their utility.

A variety of commercial and private entities as well as individualsprovide feed formatted content, others provide aggregation, and othersprovide social networking. In many cases these service providers makevery little or no income at all. It would be useful to provide a methodof monetizing feed formatted content and social networks.

Conventional web pages do not separate the display interface, oftenHTML, from the data being displayed, which is often simply text andimages embedded within the HTML. Updates to such standard web pagesrequire a page request to a web server, reloading the data displayed onthe page as well as all other interface elements. While this model workswell for single information requests, it may not be the best model forinformation that is more dynamic and suggests frequent loading in asimilar interface layout. It would be advantageous to have a method ofsolving the above inefficiencies in the consumption of feed formattedcontent and in social networks.

In summary, it would be useful to provide improved methods for socialnetwork and feed formatted content creation, management, display,tracking, and monetization.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One aspect of the invention provides a method of dynamic playlistcreation. The method includes receiving a multimedia playlist requestincluding at least one multimedia location indicator, determining atleast one multimedia file location based on the at least one multimedialocation indicator, and providing a multimedia playlist including atleast one of the determined multimedia file locations.

Another aspect of the invention includes a method of providingmultimedia content. The method includes sending an authenticationrequest to an authentication node including a first set of useridentification information, receiving an authentication reply from theauthentication node, providing multimedia location information,receiving a multimedia content request from a user node including asecond set of user identification information, determining contentownership based on the first and second sets of user identificationinformation, and providing the multimedia content based on the contentrequest and the determination.

Another aspect of the invention provides a method of operating a feedreader. The method includes receiving a resize input, resizing a feedreader from a first display including a first number of feed items to asecond display including a second number of feed items based on theresize input, the first number different from the second number,receiving a scroll request, determining a scroll number based on thesecond number, and scrolling based on the determination.

The foregoing and other features and advantages of the invention willbecome further apparent from the following detailed description of thepresently preferred embodiment, read in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings. The detailed description and drawings are merelyillustrative of the invention rather than limiting, the scope of theinvention being defined by the appended claims and equivalents thereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of feed formatted content, as known inthe art;

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic diagram of one embodiment of atelecommunication system of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of one embodiment of atelecommunication system of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates a schematic diagram of one embodiment of a web siteof a telecommunication system of the present invention;

FIGS. 5 a-c illustrate schematic diagrams of embodiments of browserbased streaming media players of the present invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates a schematic diagram of one embodiment of a website ofthe present invention;

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart representative of one embodiment of amethod for providing streaming access to a static file;

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart representative of one embodiment of amethod for providing streaming access to a static file;

FIG. 9 illustrates a flowchart representative of one embodiment of amethod for illustrating providing multimedia;

FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart representative of one embodiment of amethod for personal podcast serving;

FIG. 11 illustrates a flowchart representative of one embodiment of amethod for personal podcast serving;

FIG. 12 illustrates a flowchart representative of one embodiment of amethod for providing a wiki;

FIG. 13 a-c illustrates schematic diagrams of embodiments of web-basedwindows of the present invention;

FIG. 14 illustrates a schematic diagram of one embodiment of a browseremploying a web-based window system of the present invention;

FIG. 15 illustrates a flowchart representative of one embodiment of amethod for updating a web-based window system;

FIG. 16 illustrates a schematic diagram of one embodiment of a browseremploying a web-based window system of the present invention;

FIG. 17 illustrates a flowchart representative of one embodiment of amethod for updating a web-based window system; and

FIG. 18 illustrates a flowchart representative of one embodiment of amethod for providing feed formatted content.

FIG. 19 illustrates a schematic diagram of one embodiment of a browseremploying a web-based window system of the present invention;

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PRESENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIG. 2, a telecommunication system 200 of the presentinvention is shown. Telecommunication system 200 comprises a network 210which provides the communications links between the various nodes oftelecommunication system 200. Links through network 210 may includepermanent connections (e.g., wire or fiber optic cables), temporaryconnections made through telephone, wireless or satellitecommunications, or various nodes of telecommunication system 200 mayactually be hosted on the same physical hardware platform removing thenecessity of a network link altogether. Network 210 may be in the formof public or private connections available over the Internet, anextranet, an intranet, a hard-wired local area network (LAN), ahard-wired wide area network (WAN), a wireless LAN, a wireless WAN,cellular network, satellite network, and/or other forms as would occurto those having ordinary skill in the art.

A user node 220 of telecommunication system 200 operates to facilitatecommunications information in audio form and/or visual form between auser 222 of user node 220 and one of the other nodes oftelecommunication system 200. The information may be requested by usernode 220 or may be pushed to user node 220 by another node. Devices,apparatuses and systems, such as for example, a cell phone 226, apersonal digital assistant 228, and a personal computer 224 asillustrated, or any other user communication devices may be utilizedwithin user node 220 to establish such communications. Devices,apparatuses and systems around the user may also be considered portionsof user node 220, for example a digital signpost or digital billboard229. Other suitable devices, apparatuses and systems not illustratedinclude networked household appliances (e.g., televisions,refrigerators, etc.), digital or satellite radio systems, and others aswould occur to those having ordinary skill in the art.

A content provider node 230 includes one or more servers 232 forcommunicating with the other nodes of telecommunication system 200. Therequested information, pushed information, and generally providedcontent can be in a variety of forms, such as, for example, a static ordynamic web page (HTML or XML), a radio or video broadcast ornarrowcast, wireless application protocol (WAP) content, a shortmessaging service (SMS) message, or other forms of network informationas known in the art. All content may be provided as the entirety ofrequested or provided content, or as a portion. For example, contentprovider node 230 may provide an entire web or WAP page or only asegment of a page. Accordingly, content server 232 can include suitablehardware platforms and software modules to operate as a web site server,a radio broadcast server, etc.

Referring again to FIG. 2, publishing node 240 includes one or moreservers 242 for communicating with the other nodes of telecommunicationsystem 200. Publishing node 240 may include apparatus and communicationsdevices such as telephone 244, or fax machine 246. In one embodiment,publishing node 240 provides some portion or all of the content forcontent provider 230. Publishing node 240 may also publish content oradvertisements for advertiser node 250. Publishing node 240 may includeinterfaces for uploading or inputting by some means content that is tobe published via network 210.

Advertiser node 250 represents advertisers that may be any of an endadvertiser of a product or service, a marketer, a publicist, apolitician, any other similar party, or any party acting as an agent ofthe advertiser such as a media company, public relations company,advertising agency, or traditional publication. Advertiser node 250 mayinclude apparatus and communications devices such as computer 252,telephone 254, or fax machine 256.

Service provider node 260 represents third party service providers,whose services may be incorporated into the present telecommunicationssystem 200. For example, Mapquest or Google Maps may provide mappingfunctionality and services. Evite may provide event invitation andresponse management services. Quova may provide IP-to-geographytranslation services. Gracenote may supply its CDDB product andservices. Friendster, MySpace, or the like may provide social networkservices. Paypal or Verisign may provide payment services. These serviceproviders are only exemplary, and within each service category otherservice providers may be available, or another node of the system mayprovide like service. Service providers may also perform advertising orpublishing functions. Service providers may operate as independent nodesof telecommunications system 200, or may provide copies of their code,databases, systems and the like for local installation on another nodeof telecommunications system 200. Service may be provided in the form ofdata feeds, application program interface (API), web services, or anyother form of communication available in telecommunications system 200as would occur to one skilled in the art.

While the nodes of FIG. 2 are illustrated and described as solelycommunicating using network 210, this is only to be considered a bestmode, and not limiting. Various nodes, where possible, may communicateusing other forms of communication including phone, fax, in-personmeetings, mail, and other forms known in the art. In addition, each nodemay consist of more or fewer communications devices, personnel, andapparatus than are illustrated. Further, while the nodes, and furthertheir component make-up (e.g. servers, databases), are described asoperating independently and on separate platforms, it should be wellunderstood by one skilled in the art that various functions of the nodeor functions of the multiple nodes may be performed on the same physicalhardware, or spread in different configurations, arrangements andarchitectures among the various nodes.

User node 220, content provider node 230, publishing node 240,advertising node 250, and service provider node 260 may each provide orreceive feed formatted content. Examples herein will typically focus onXML, and specifically RSS, but it should be understood that other feedformatted content may employ like solutions. The term marker shalltypically refer to an element, attribute, or group of elements andattributes within feed formatted content, and the terms marker, element,and attribute shall generally be understood to mean formattedinformation within feed formatted content.

Feeds may be provided in a variety of ways. A feed may be provided froma Primary Content Provider (PCP), or feed source server, which is anoriginal information source, such as, News.com or the New York Times.The feed from a PCP is accessed from a domain and URL maintained by theoriginal source. Portions or all of the feed or feed content may bewritten or edited through outsourcing, outside software may be used togenerate the feed, and interfaces hosted by another entity may be usedin the feed generation. However, a PCP maintains all feed data locally.An Outsourced Content Provider (OCP) is a feed provider that providesfeeds in an Application Service Provider (ASP) model. Feed data ismanaged and maintained remote from the original source, however the feedmay still be hosted from a domain or URL maintained by the originalsource through remote data request. In one embodiment, an OCP may beemployed by a PCP to manage the creation of feed formatted content, andthe OCP may provide the ability, for example through FTP, to publish thefeed formatted content at a server maintained by the PCP. An AggregateContent Provider (ACP) may generate original feed content, but an ACPreceives feed content and redistributes it in one or more feedsmaintained by the ACP. Both an OCP and an ACP may be referred to as afeed intermediate server. Each node of telecommunication system 100 mayact as, or use the services of, one or more PCPs, OCPs, or ACPs.

It should be noted that delivery of feed formatted content does notnecessarily imply that an active push is involved. Delivery of feedformatted content may, in one embodiment, allow that the feed formattedcontent be made available for request. For example, the feed formattedcontent may be made available at some universal resource identifier(URI), or at some other location available to a user. Similarly, itshould be noted that terms sending feed formatted content or providingfeed formatted content do not necessarily imply that an active push isinvolved. Sending a feed formatted content may, in one embodiment,indicate that the feed formatted content is made available for request.For example, the feed formatted content may be made available at someuniversal resource identifier (URI), or at some other feed locationavailable to a user. However, the delivery, provision, or sending methodfor the feed formatted content may not be through request of an XMLfeed, RSS feed, atom feed, or the like, but rather may involve a moreactive push of the content.

Feed formatted content may include certain enhancement markers, dataand/or formatting to provide enhanced feed creation, management,delivery, organization, interaction, accountability, display, and thelike. For example, enhanced feed formatted content may include elementsadditional to those shown in feed 100. Feed aggregation and displaytools may ignore additional elements, and may be capable of aggregatingand displaying feed items even if they do contain these additionalelements. Inclusion of additional elements or markers within feedformatted content therefore may provide additional benefit if theaggregation and display tool is designed to process them, and may notdisrupt standard feed formatted content aggregation and display.

In one embodiment, a link or button may be provided on the IAP or singleitem window to provide the user with peripheral information regarding anitem. For example, peripheral information could include user or otherthird party commentary on the source or subject of the item, mapinformation, similar items, general information, bonus or benefitinformation, or the like. For example, a feed item regarding collegerecruitment at a specific college could include a link to a collegerating service. By way of another example, a restaurant special couldinclude a link to rewards network miles per dollar information for therestaurant.

For example, a feed publisher may publish feed formatted contentassociated with a product or service available for purchase. In oneembodiment, when a payment marker is present, an interface may display a“buy now” button or link that takes the user to a purchasing page onsome other site. Alternatively, instead of directing the user to a sitewhere they may purchase the product, the service receiving the feedformatted content may hold all necessary information regarding thepurchase for the user. In one embodiment, the “buy now” button or linkcauses a form to be submitted to the merchant site including visible orhidden form elements and user info regarding the purchase and paymentdetails. Alternatively, clicking the button may cause a web service tobe called, or some other like communication with an order and/or paymentprocessing service. In one embodiment, the “buy now” button or link maysignal the service to process the purchase indicated in the feedformatted content. For example, a user may register for or create a feedthat searches EBay® for a particular type of item at a certain pricethreshold. When that type of item becomes available on EBay for a setprice under the threshold, a feed item representing that availabilitymay be inserted into the user's feed and it may include a paymentmarker. In one embodiment, the payment marker may include the price, theuser's EBay login information, the seller's information, an identifierfor the particular item up for purchase, or other information relevantto the purchase. The “buy now” button or link displayed on the displayinterface may submit directly to the EBay site and process thetransaction based on the login information and identifier.Alternatively, the “buy now” button or link may submit to a serviceprovider. The service provider may hold a purchase script for EBay aswell as other ecommerce sites. When the “buy now” submission is receivedat the service provider, the EBay purchase script may be executed. Thescript may include, for example, sending a post request to an EBaypurchase page, sending a post request including user login credentials,and a post request confirming the purchase. In one embodiment, theservice provider may communicate the purchase in some other manner suchas, for example, electronic business XML (ebXML), a web servicesapplication program interface (API), or some other form of purchase datatransfer. One-click purchasing can in many of the above-describedembodiments be achieved separate from a central storefront.

By way of another example, a restaurant may publish feed formattedcontent, such as, for example, regarding a dinner special for aparticular night. The restaurant may be enrolled in a rewards programsuch as the airline miles rewards program managed by Rewards NetworkInc., formerly iDine. Users who are enrolled in this program wouldbenefit from knowing that the restaurant is also enrolled, but thatinformation may be superfluous for non-enrolled users. The restaurantfeed formatted content may include a reward marker that either includesinformation about the particular reward deal at that restaurant, linksto the reward deal, or simply indicates that the reward is available.

For example, the reward marker might indicate that twenty airline milesare earned per dollar spent at the restaurant. A feed formatted contentdisplay service may hold information regarding what users are registeredwith the rewards program, and may selectively display the rewardavailability based on the reward marker and the user information.

In one embodiment, feed formatted content may include one or more eventdate markers. While it is common practice to include a published datefor feed formatted content, it would be advantageous to include a datemarker particular to an event referred to in the feed formatted content.For example, feed formatted content provided by Ticketmaster® mayinclude a feed item referring to a concert that will take place in twoweeks. The published date reflects the first date the item is displayedin the feed, but the separate event date marker may be used tocommunicate the actual concert date. A user may specify a userpreference that they wish to receive concert information as much as amonth ahead of time. The server may provide them with the feed formattedcontent from Ticketmaster® including the feed item referring to theconcert. Alternatively, if the user only wishes to receive informationabout concerts coming up within the next week, the server does notprovide the concert information. In one embodiment, a feed basedcalendar may be provided. A feed based calendar is a calendar that mayassociate information in a feed with presentation on the calendar, forexample based on an event date marker, recurrence pattern, or the like.

In one embodiment, a server may provide an aggregate feed. The aggregatefeed may be a feed made up, at least in part, of feeds for eachindividual advertiser. In one embodiment, the aggregate feed may bemodified by the user to include a subset of the feeds or feed items inthe aggregate feed.

In one embodiment, the feed formatted content publishing interface mayinclude one or more options, for example as form elements, to specifyone or more enhancement markers. For example, a payment marker, rewardmarker, event marker, or the like may be added to the content throughthe interface.

Feed formatted content may be singular in source or aggregated. Forexample, two restaurants may maintain feeds singular to theirestablishments. An aggregate channel of restaurant feeds may combinethese two feeds to provide an aggregated restaurants feed. Any number offeeds or selected feed items from feeds may be combined to produce anaggregate feed. In one embodiment, a feed item incorporated within anaggregate feed may include an original source marker identifying itssingular original source. When the feed formatted content from theaggregate feed is displayed at user node 220, a link to the singularoriginal source or some means of subscribing or unsubscribing the userto or from the singular original feed, such as a button or link, may beprovided. In this manner, if the user enjoys information from onesingular original source in an aggregate feed, but wishes to unsubscribefrom the aggregate feed, an easy method of subscribing to the singularoriginal source has been provided. Alternatively, if the user wishes tomaintain a subscription to the aggregate feed, but unsubscribe from onesingular original source, an easy method of unsubscribing from thesingular original source has been provided. In one embodiment, anaggregate feed is the feeds and feed items within a feed bucket.

In one embodiment, the feed formatted content publishing interface mayinclude interface options for specifying recurrence of feed formattedcontent. A user may enter one or more recurrence patterns. Thepublishing node may publish the feed formatted content based on therecurrence pattern. The recurrence selection is associated with at leasta portion of feed formatted content. A recurrence publication servicemay run on the server or against the information on the server. Theassociated feed formatted content is then selectively published based onthe recurrence selection and the recurrence publication service. If therecurrence publication service determines that a new occurrence hasoccurred, the feed formatted content is published. If the recurrencepublication service determines that a new occurrence has not occurred,no new content is published.

For example, the recurrence selection could be expressed via aninterface. A user may select that a certain feed item should bepublished at 5 pm on each Monday. The server may, in one embodiment,store the recurrence selection as a recurrence pattern format such asthe standardized iCalendar format. The recurrence publication servicemay run once a minute to determine if any new items are due forpublishing. This may be achieved by selecting one ore more recurrencepatterns, for example all recurrence patterns, or active recurrencepatterns, or recurrence patterns associated with active feed formattedcontent or users, and the recurrence publication service then projectingthe selected recurrence patterns over the time period since it last ran.If a new occurrence falls into that time period, the feed formattedcontent may then be published. In one embodiment, the publishing nodemay insert at least one globally unique identifier in the feed formattedcontent based on the recurrence selection. This globally uniqueidentifier may indicate to feed aggregation programs that the feedformatted content is fresh, even though it is recurring in nature. Inone embodiment, a recurring content identifier may be inserted with thepublished content. A feed aggregation program may be configured to allowa user to filter out feed formatted content containing a recurringcontent identifier associated with recurring feed formatted content. Inone embodiment, a conditional publishing rule may also be associatedwith the feed formatted content. The feed formatted content may bepublished based on both the recurrence pattern and the conditionalpublishing rule.

In one embodiment, the feed formatted content may include a differentglobally unique identifier (GUID) for some portion of the feed formattedcontent based on the recurrence pattern. A different GUID may allow afeed aggregator to recognize recurring feed formatted content as unique.Alternatively, the published date of one or more portions of the feedformatted content may change based on the recurrence pattern, and mayprovide a uniqueness indication.

In one embodiment, the published feed formatted content may include arecurring content identifier (RCID). The RCID may indicate that at leasta portion of feed formatted content is recurring in nature.

In one embodiment, publishing node 240 may receive calls fromadvertisers at a call center. If the advertiser has never worked withpublishing node 240 before, account information may be entered into anadvertiser database. In one embodiment, the account information mayinclude information to be displayed on a landing web page for theadvertiser or the advertiser may designate a URL for a landing web page.A feed may be established exclusively for the advertiser to hold thefeed formatted content that is ordered. The feed formatted contentordered by the advertiser may be placed in a feed with other feedformatted content.

In one embodiment, a feed formatted content publishing interface may beprovided, for example at a web site that allows users, advertisers,advertising agencies, or any other entity to log in to an account andcreate feed formatted content. For example, an advertiser may log intotheir account and encounter a page that includes a form requestingtitle, link, and description information that will be converted to feedformatted content and included in the advertiser's feed. Given thevarious methods by which feed formatted content may be created orpublished by publishing node 240, different pricing methods may beestablished to charge for the publication and management services. Forexample, publishing node 240 may charge a certain amount for a phoneorder but allow submissions via an online interface for a cheaper priceor for free.

In one embodiment, the feed formatted content publishing interface mayinclude the option to provide one or more conditional publishing rules.A user may enter one or more conditional publishing rules. Theconditional publishing rules are associated with at least a portion offeed formatted content on the server or at an alternate location. Thepublishing node publishes the feed formatted content based on theconditional publishing rules. A conditional publishing rule may be aweather condition, a sporting event, a financial event, reservationavailability, a product sale, or some other determinable condition. Forexample, a bar may have a beer garden open on weekend nights. Arecurrence pattern may be associated with feed formatted contentregarding the special. The recurrence pattern may indicate to publishthe feed formatted content on Friday and Saturday of each week from Mayuntil November. The weather condition may be determined, in oneembodiment, for example, by temperature or weather condition informationin feed formatted content from a weather publishing service providernode. However, if one of those weekend days is not warm and/or has rain,the bar may wish that the feed formatted content not be published thatday. A conditional publishing rule may be associated with the feedformatted content indicating that it should be published only if theweather is over a certain temperature. Another conditional publishingrule may be associated with the feed formatted content indicating thatit should not be published if it is not raining. Weather information maybe provided, for example, as feed formatted content by a serviceprovider. The publishing node may receive the weather information andselectively publish the feed formatted content based on the weatherinformation and the conditional publishing rules. Other examples ofconditional publishing rules include rules based on portions of oroutcomes of sporting events, stock prices, product sales, reservationavailability, or the like. A service provider may provide suchinformation, or it may be provided by the publishing node, or by theadvertising node.

In one embodiment, the feed formatted content publishing interface mayinclude tracking information. In one embodiment, the publishing node maycollect the tracking information for display on the interface.Alternatively, the publishing node may employ a service provider for thetracking information such as, for example, that provided by FeedBurner™.A publishing node hosts a private version of feed formatted content. Thepublishing node may receive a request a public version of feed formattedcontent. The publishing node may request a second private version offeed formatted content based on the first private version of feedformatted content. The publishing node may publish the public version offeed formatted content based on the second private version of feedformatted content.

In one embodiment, the publishing node may register the first privateversion of feed formatted content with the tracking information serviceprovider. The publishing node may post the URI of the private version offeed formatted content and provide it to the tracking informationservice provider. Other information may be included in the post such aspublisher information, feed title, URI information, or feature selectioninformation. The publishing node may store the tracking serviceidentifier, for example URI of the second version of the feed formattedcontent as provided by the tracking information service provider. In oneembodiment, the publishing node may cache the second version of the feedformatted content. The publishing node may, when it receives a requestfor the public version of feed formatted content, request the secondversion of the feed formatted content, and publish that feed formattedcontent to the requestor. Alternatively, the publishing node may providethe cached feed formatted content. The publishing node may requesttracking information from the tracking information service provider andprovide it, for example displaying it to a user via the feed formattedcontent publishing interface. In one embodiment, the publishing node maycache the tracking information. In one embodiment, the private versionof the feed formatted content may include one or more recurrenceselections, one or more conditional publishing rules, or a combinationof selections and rules, and may be published based on these selectionsand rules.

In publishing feed formatted content, many uses may be achieved bytracking use and other response information with regards to the contentor feed itself. Feed access, also called subscription, may be recordedanonymously or indexed to a particular user. For example, a request fora feed may not include personally identifying information regarding usernode 220 that made the request. Alternatively, a request may be madefrom an identified user node 220. User characteristic information inputis received into the system either through association with theanonymous request, the request itself indicating the characteristic of auser that has requested that feed or geographic location of the requestestablished by IP address to geography translation, or throughassociation with the user characteristic information associated with theidentified user node. Characteristic information associated with theidentified user node may include other feeds requested, feed accessfrequency, feedback received from the user with regards to one or morefeeds or feed items, access frequency, age, sex, location, or other userinformation held in a profile or established by other means.

In one embodiment, profile information may be collected by the IAPeither at registration or at some other time. This information may beused to provide profiled feed response tracking, and further to makefeed and feed item recommendations to IAP users.

User profiles may be maintained by feed aggregation and display softwareat user node 220, at content provider node 230, at publishing node 240,or at advertiser node 250. The characteristic information received orinput is then used to determine a characteristic profile of therequestor. Feed formatted content response data is then received andcollected by the receiving node. Feed formatted content response data,collectively response data, may take many forms. In one embodiment,response data is related to feed formatted content interaction. Forexample, continued feed requests, discontinuance of feed request, orrecorded removal of feed subscription may constitute response data.Further, response data may include clicking on links in a feed item, orother access of online resources referenced in the feed item. A cookieassociated with the feed request may be employed to track indirectaccess of resources listed in or referenced in a feed item. For example,a feed item may reference a sale being held on a particular website anda link may be provided in the feed item to access that web site and acookie associated with the request displaying that feed item may beplaced at user node 220. If the user clicks on the included link, thisaction may be received as feed item response data. If the user latervisits the web site, the cookie identifies them as having received thefeed item and this action may be received as feed item response data.

Another method of receiving feed item response data includes the use ofa user survey, and reception of associated user survey input. A feeditem may include this user survey in its content. For example, adisplayed feed item may have a link that says, “I liked thisinformation.” If the user clicks on this link, it is received as feeditem response data. There are many types of surveys that may beincluded, such as, providing the user the ability to rank the feedformatted content on a scale of one to ten, to provide a basic good orbad response, or to provide free form written response. The survey maybe displayed with the feed item, or there may be a link to the survey inthe feed item, or the resource available by following link element mayinclude the survey.

Received feed formatted content response data is recorded in acharacteristic profiled response database. This data may then be usedfor many purposes. For example, reports may be generated with individualor aggregated response information for feed publishers or otherentities. For example, aggregate response information may be providedvia an online interface to allow potential subscribers to view feedformatted content popularity or other feed formatted contentcharacteristics. Collaborative filtering may be applied over thecharacteristic profiled response database to provide feed formattedcontent recommendations.

One embodiment of the present invention provides for sponsorship of feedformatted content. Sponsorships may be provided for entire feeds, foraggregate feeds, for individual feed items or subsets of a feed, or forgroups of feed formatted content. Sponsorships may be provided in avariety of ways. For example, a feed item may include extra text in thedescription or title element indicating the sponsorship. Alternatively,when a link in a feed item is clicked, the user may be taken to anintermediate sponsorship page. An intermediate sponsorship page is apage that audibly or visibly indicates association with a sponsor. Thisintermediate sponsorship page may include a link to the actual desiredcontent, or the page may refresh to display the desired content after aset period of time. In one embodiment, feed formatted content mayinclude an audio or visual marker that is identified and played by theIAP when the feed formatted content is accessed. For example, when afeed formatted content is retrieved from News.com, an audio marker maybe included for Intel. When the feed formatted content is provided, theaudio marker may be identified and a linked audio file may be playedthat says, “This News.com feed is sponsored by Intel,” followed by theIntel jingle.

A geographic region identity is a set of parameters that define ageographic point or area. For example, a geographic region identity maybe specified by providing a center point, be that a zip code, city, orprecise longitude and latitude coordinates, and also providing a radiusfrom that center point. When a zip code, city, or the like is providedas a point, the system may determine a latitude and longitude pointwithin the provided area, for example at the centermost point. In oneembodiment, the geographic region identity includes the entire zip code,city, or like area in the geographic region identity even if portions ofit would be excluded by the determined center point and the providedradius. Alternatively, only the area determined by the center point andthe provided radius are included in the geographic region identity.Providing multiple points that form a polygon may also specify ageographic region identity. Again the points may be zip code, city, orlatitude and longitude coordinates, and the same inclusion and exclusionembodiments are included as described above. In one embodiment, ageographic region identity includes one or more zip code, city, state,country, or other region selections. In one embodiment, a geographicregion identity may be determined by any combination of theabove-described embodiments. For example, a center point and radius maybe specified in addition to a list of cities to include. As anotherexample, multiple center point and radius pairs may be specified. Ageographic region identity may also include areas of exclusion. Forexample, a center point and radius may be specified that includes tenzip codes, but the user may specify that one of those zip codes is to beexcluded.

In one embodiment, a geographic region identity may be determined basedon double or single confirmation targeting. A geographic region identitymay be determined based on a user profile on a site supplying the feedformatted content, or it may be determined from a profile on anothersite, such as Yahoo®. Alternatively, a geographic region identity may bedetermined by IP-to-geography translation. An IP-to-geography service,such as that provided by Digital Envoy, may be used to determine thelocation of the request.

The geographic origin of a request for sponsored feed formatted contentmay be determined in a variety of ways. The geographic region identity asponsor has designated may be included in proposal information.Alternatively, a sponsor database holding sponsor information mayinclude location information that may be associated with one or moresponsorship proposals. In one embodiment, the determination of feedformatted content sponsorship association 1710 and/or 1810 includes thegeographic region identity. In one embodiment, the provision of asponsored feed formatted content 1712 and/or 1812 includes thegeographic region identity. Based on the geographic origin of a requestfor feed formatted content, a sponsor may be associated with the feedformatted content. Different sponsors may be associated with the samefeed formatted content based upon requests for feed formatted contentfrom different geographic origins. Different sponsors may also beassociated with the same feed formatted content based on day part,profile demographics or any other method of online targeting known inthe art.

In one embodiment, a sponsor may specify an author of feed formattedcontent in their sponsorship request or in their response to asponsorship request. For example, a request for feed formatted contentsponsorship may have multiple authors, and author markers may beincluded in the feed formatted content to identify each author. Asponsor may select to portions of the feed formatted content that isfrom one or more authors by including the author or author marker intheir proposal information. An individual author of feed formattedcontent that is displayed in multiple feeds may also submit a requestfor sponsorship, and sponsorship associations may be made in associationwith that author.

In one embodiment, the user can read off the coupon numbers to therestaurant to get his discount. In one embodiment, the coupon willinclude a bar code, which can be read through the phone into a bar codescanner to receive a discount. In one embodiment, the bar code may beincluded in feed formatted content as a bar code marker. The bar codemarker may include a link to a bar code image, or a code to generate abar code. For example, a bar code marker may include numericalinformation that may be translated into a bar code. A program on thecell phone of the user may convert the received numerical informationinto a bar code display. This displayed bar code may be scanned, forexample, at a standard checkout desk. Location information may bedetermined by GPS, signal triangulation, user profile information, anyother method known in the art, or a combination of these methods, forexample providing double confirmation targeting.

One embodiment of the present invention includes an Independent AccessPortal (IAP). An IAP may include one or more of the functions of feedformatted content aggregation, management, and/or display. An IAP mayincorporate, internally or externally, a variety of services such as,for example, social networking functions, messaging, wikis, bookmarking,or the like. An IAP may perform processes and methods such as feedaggregation, unique feed provision, as well as others included in thisapplication. An IAP may include, produce, or use markers to allowenhanced feed provision, such as those that have been and will bedescribed. In one embodiment, the IAP may be software at the user node220, software at an OCP or ACP, or a combination of the two. The IAP mayinclude one or more web based, cell phone, desktop application, or otheruser interfaces. For example an interface might be a standard web page,or combinations of web content and software. The term IAP may refer toany of these, and the term IAP server may be used to designate softwareor interfaces not held at user node 220, but one skilled in the artshould understand that various aspects of the programming may betransferred between nodes and not depart from the spirit of theinvention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of one embodiment of atelecommunication system of the present invention at 300.Telecommunication system 300 comprises a network 370 which is the mediaused to provide communications links between the various nodes oftelecommunication system 300. Links through network 370 may includepermanent connections (e.g., wire or fiber optic cables), temporaryconnections made through telephone or wireless communications, orvarious nodes of telecommunication system 300 may actually be hosted onthe same physical hardware platform removing the necessity of a networklink altogether. Network 370 may be in the form of public or privateconnections available over the Internet, an extranet, an intranet, ahard-wired local area network (LAN), a hard-wired wide area network(WAN), a wireless LAN a wireless WAN, and/or other forms.

A user node 310 of telecommunication system 300 operates to facilitatecommunications of requested information in audio form and/or visual formbetween a user of user node 310 and one of the other nodes oftelecommunication system 300. Devices, apparatuses and systems, such asfor example, a cell phone, a personal digital assistant, and a personalcomputer as illustrated, can be utilized within user node 310 toestablish such communications. Other nodes of telecommunication system300 include Content Aggregator Node 320, Streaming Service Node 330,Content Provider Node 340, Ad Selection Node 350, and Advertiser Node360. All of these nodes may include various communication componentsincluding telephones, faxes, PDAs, personal computers, servers,databases, and the like.

FIG. 4 illustrates one embodiment of a web site of telecommunicationsystem 300 at 400. The site is displayed in web browser 410. The siteincludes at least one item being displayed, or a list of items 420. Eachitem may include a play button or link 430.

FIGS. 5 a-c illustrate embodiments of a browser based streaming mediaplayer at 500 a-c. The browser based streaming player may include astandard media player such as Windows Media Player at 500 a.

In one embodiment, the browser based media player may not display thedefault interface. Interaction with the media player functions such asplay, pause, next, and the like may be provided by javascript commandsor some other method of interfacing with the media player. In oneembodiment the javascript or other commands may provide additional logicor functions other than exclusively playing, or pausing the media. Forexample, the javascript may perform an Asynchronous Javascript and XML(AJAX) call to determine if an alternate file should be played when thenext button is clicked.

The browser based streaming player may alternatively be built using suchclient-side capability-rich languages as java or flash at 75 b-c.Capabilities and information display may include, for example,information about what is playing, what will play next, news items, orsome other message, favorite media sources, subscribed media sources, orthe like.

FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of a website at 600 that incorporates aplay button 610 that launches a third party web based media player 7500a-c.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart representative of providing streamingaccess to a static file at 700. Feed formatted content input is received710, for example a podcast. This feed formatted content may include areference to a static media file such as:http://www.podcastsample.net/song.mp3. This example is an mp3 file, butthe file may be video, audio, or any other type of media file. Thestatic file reference is identified 720, and an alternate link may beprovided. For example:

http://site.com/XML/cast.aspx?q=http://www.podcastsample. net/song.mp3.This link may launch a web based media player 7500 a-c. Alternatively, alink may be provided such as:

http://site.com/XML/cast.m3u?q=http://www.podcastsample. net/song.mp3.An m3u file is a media queue format, also generally known as a playlist.It is the default playlist save format of WinAMP and many other mediaprograms. It allows multiple files to be queued in a program in aspecific format. Clicking on a link to an m3u, or providing it as thedestination file for a web based media player prompts a media player toattempt to stream the content at the one or more locations provided inthe m3u file. Static m3u files may be created with the static filereferences in the received xml input, and the link provided to astreaming file 730 may be this new static m3u file. Alternatively, them3u file itself may be a dynamic file. For example, the m3u fileextension may be mapped to a processing program. For example, the ISAPIDLL for processing ASP.NET pages. The above referenced m3u URL could beprocessed by the following code:

<%=Request.QueryString[“q”]%>

The above describes one embodiment of dynamic playlist creation. Thepodcast is an example of a multimedia location indicator, othermultimedia location indicators may be, for example, a URL referencing astatic multimedia file. A multimedia file location is determined basedon at least one multimedia location indicator. When a request isreceived for a multimedia playlist is received including one or moremultimedia location indicators, a multimedia playlist is provided basedon the indicators included in the request.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart representative of providing streamingaccess to additional static files at 800. A request for a streaming fileis received 810, for example the request forhttp://site.com/XML/cast.aspx?q=http://www.podcastsample.net/song.mp3.

In one embodiment, the request may be from a registered user of asystem. In one embodiment, a cookie, or querystring parameter, or userprofile, or IP-to-geography, or any other method of determiningdemographic or geographic region identity information about the sourceof the request 820 may be used. In one embodiment, that file may includeone or more additional lines so that the file may appear with thefollowing code:

http://site.com/gritCast.wav

<%=Request.QueryString[“q”]%>

Alternatively, one or more additional files may be included in thestreaming file 830. The one or more included additional files may bebased, at least in part, on the determined demographic, geographic, ortime information, recurrence patterns, conditional publishing rules, orother targeting methods. For example advertisements may be included, ora file announcing the brand of the web based media player. In oneembodiment, the multimedia file included in the playlist may vary basedupon the determined information.

Additional information may be used to determine an advertisement inaddition to or separate from demographic or geographic information. Forexample, the subject of a multimedia file may be determined and the adselected based in part upon this determination.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a method forproviding multimedia at 900. A multimedia media player is provided at902. Feed formatted content is received at 904, the feed formattedcontent including at least one multimedia marker, such as, for example,an enclosure tag indicating a multimedia file. A playlist request isreceived from the multimedia player at 906. A playlist, including atleast a portion of the multimedia marker is returned at 908. Acharacteristic profile response database may be provided, and theplaylist may be based on the characteristic profile response database. Arequest for sponsorship may be received, and the playlist may besponsored based on the request. A multimedia file may be associated withthe request for sponsorship, and the sponsored playlist may associatethe multimedia file with the playlist.

In one embodiment, a launch code generation page may be provided. A usermay enter a multimedia target, such as, for example a location of feedformatted content, a multimedia file, a playlist file, or the like, andthe launch code generation page could return page description languageoperable to launch the multimedia player including the multimediatarget. For example, a combination of HTML and javascript may beprovided to launch the multimedia player. In one embodiment, a customskin may be provided for the multimedia player. For example, a user mayselect what skin they wish to have on their player. Alternatively, theskin may be associated with a sponsor. The skin may be based on theplaylist request. In one embodiment, a user may specify a skin on thelaunch code generation page from a list of options. The launch code mayinclude a skin specification. Alternatively, the user may specify alocation where the image files required for the skin are located, thusproviding a custom skin. The image files may also be submitted to adestination on a site or server associated with the multimedia player.In one embodiment, this may be added to the list of available skins forother users to select from.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a method forpersonal podcast serving at 1000. An authentication request is sent toan authentication node at 1002, including a first set of useridentification information. An authentication reply is received from theauthentication node at 1004. Multimedia location information is providedat 1006. A multimedia content request is received from a user node at1008, including a second set of user identification information.Ownership of the multimedia content is determined at 1010. When it isdetermined that the content request is from the owner of the multimediacontent, the full content is provided at 1012. When it is determinedthat the content request is not from the owner of the multimediacontent, access is limited 1014. In one embodiment, a non-owner has noaccess to the multimedia file. Alternatively, only a portion of the filemay be provided. For example, a twenty-second clip may be provided.Alternatively, a formula may be applied to determine the providedportion. The formula may be based upon total length of the multimediafile, the multimedia file size, the type of multimedia file, multimediacontent patterns, or some combination of these and/or other factors.Multimedia content patterns include expected intro and closing segmentsof the content, song repetition patterns and the like. For example, itmay be determined that songs in general, songs within a particulargenre, or songs from a particular artist tend to include an intro, averse, a chorus, a verse, a chorus, a bridge, a chorus, a chorus, and aclosing. Continuing the example it may be determined that these segmentsgenerally constitute ten, fifteen, ten, fifteen, ten, twenty, ten, ten,and fifteen percent of the song and file respectively. A representativesample of the song may include both chorus and verse, so the selectedclip may begin thirteen percent of the way into the song in order tomost likely include both segments. In one embodiment, the segment may beselected randomly and/or recalculated on each request. Alternatively,the same segment may be played on each request, and the start point ofthe selected segment may be stored in association with the file. Asanother alternative, access limitation 1014 may include directing theuser to an alternate multimedia file. The alternate multimedia file mayannounce the access limitation, or in another embodiment the alternatemultimedia file may be a designated sample multimedia file associatedwith the requested multimedia file.

For example, in one embodiment, a user installation program orexecutable file may be provided. The user may install or run the programon, for example, an Internet connected personal computer. The programsets up a file server on the user computer. The user provides, or theprogram scans for, location information for files on the computer. Forexample, the program may scan the hard drive for mp3 or other multimediafiles. The program may provide an opportunity for the user to log in,for example using a username and password. The user may also set up anew account. The user login and account information is authenticated andrecorded at a control server. In one embodiment, the authenticationinformation is associated with the URL or IP address of the usercomputer. The program may provide multimedia file location informationduring authentication, or may provide the information based on arequest. For example, the multimedia file information may be provided asfeed formatted content, or podcast format, including multimedia markerssuch as enclosure tags indicating file locations served by the program.The multimedia file information may be publicly available and accessibleor may require remote authentication to request or receive it. In oneembodiment, the user may log in to a program, website, or the like at asecond Internet connected computer. For example, the same username andpassword may be supplied as was supplied to authenticate thefile-serving program. Based on this authentication information, thecontrol server may provide the multimedia location information. Amultimedia player may be provided to play the multimedia files based onthe multimedia location information. For example, the multimedia playermay accept the multimedia location information in feed format. Themultimedia player may make a request of the file-serving program for oneor more of the multimedia files. When the request is received by thefile-serving program, the file-serving program may authenticate therequest in a variety of ways. For example, the request may include theauthentication information, such as username and password.Alternatively, the request may include the IP address of the source ofthe request, and the file-serving program may send an authenticationrequest to the control server to determine if this IP address isassociated with the same user as is associated with the file-servingprogram. For example, when the user logs in at the second computer, thecontrol server may record the IP address associated with that log in. Ifa request is received for the multimedia content from a node other thanone that has been authenticated as being associated with the same useras the user associated with the file-serving program, the file accessmay be limited. This limitation determination may be termed accessavailability. In one embodiment, full access may only be provided to thelocation most recently authenticated by the user.

In one embodiment, when an non-owner requests a multimedia file, apayment marker or some other purchase opportunity may be associated withthe multimedia file. For example, mp3 files may contain ID3 tagsdescribing the audio file, such as artist, track, album, and releaseinformation. This information may be used to determine a payment markeror purchase opportunity either directly from the control server or froman alternate server or another merchant or affiliate such as, forexample, iTunes or Napster. Services such as those provided byGracenote® may also be employed to determine what file is beingrequested and an associated payment marker or purchase opportunity. Anopportunity to purchase a multimedia file may be referred to as a fullversion purchase option. The user may immediately request to purchasethe file, or they may enter a contingent purchase request. In oneembodiment, a user, for example of the IAP system, may recommend amultimedia file to the IAP community or to another individual, forexample in that user's social network, or via an automatedrecommendation email. In one embodiment, a user's music locationinformation, or playlist, may be available on an associated profile pagefor that user on the IAP.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a method forpersonal podcast serving at 1100. An authentication request is receivedat 115, including a first set of user identification information. Anauthentication reply is provided at 1104. Multimedia content locationinformation is received from a first user node at 1106. Anauthentication request from a second user node is received at 1108,including a second set of user identification information. Multimedia isprovided to the second user node at 1110. The first set of userauthentication identification information may be cached. The second setmay be cached. A current login location request may be received from thefirst user node. A current login location may be provided, in oneembodiment based on the second set of user identification information. Arecommendation request may be received from the second user node,including a third set of user identification information and at leastone multimedia content location. A user may be indexed to the multimediacontent location based on the recommendation request. A thirdauthentication request may be received from a third user node, includinga set of user identification information, and the multimedia contentlocation may be provided to the user based on the indexing. Themultimedia content location may include purchase opportunity informationbased on the multimedia content information. Supplementary multimediamay be associated with the original multimedia file request, therecommendation request, or the like. For example, a user may associatean audio file with a video file and recommend them in tandem. The audiofile may be, for example, commentary recorded by the user of the userregarding the video file. For example, a coach may host video files ofparticular games or plays in games, and may record commentary that maybe associated with the video. Different audio may be associated with thevideo for different users, such as, for example, different players thecoach forwards the video to.

In one embodiment, images and/or multimedia clips are indexed to a feeditem and presented as a play list. The play list can be scrolled over ina feed item viewer. In one embodiment, when a cursor is positioned on afeed item, or a user input is received, a preview is displayed with theimage or a portion of the multimedia clip. In one embodiment the previewcan be a separate movable viewer that may be sized as desired and movedto a desired location on the page or added to a pile. The pile may thenbe captured in a template viewer. A title for a feed comprising theitems in the pile may be provided. The items within the new feed viewercan be reordered by, for example, dragging the items above or below andclicking. A display time for images and the length of the multimediafiles may be summed. An audio feed or set of feed items may bedisplayed. The audio files that are displayed as feed items may beselected by the user to match with image or video feed items. If theaudio file play times and the image or multimedia files don't match up,the last audio file can be faded out early or the image display timescan be adjusted or the video clip may be faded out early based on a userselection. The options may be presented in the user interface. Onceselected, the modified audio items may be indexed to theimage/multimedia feed. The joint image/multimedia and audio feed can beconverted to a play list or play list feed. When accessed by a user, theaudio and image/video content may be streamed simultaneously to providethe presentation at a remote computer. The image/multimedia and audiocan be streamed from multiple source computers. In one embodiment,sponsorship may be provided associated with the created feed.

Personal podcast serving may be provided in conjunction with a varietyof existing services. For example, the personal podcast server may beimplemented for web-based music programs such as Last.fm, or as aplug-in for an existing media player such as iTunes, Windows MediaPlayer, or the like. Playlists created in iTunes, or some othermultimedia file management program, may be selected for publication aspersonal podcasts. In one embodiment, when one or more files areselected for inclusion in a personal podcast, a warning may be providedto the user based on files that maintain digital rights management. Forexample, if a user selected to publish an iTunes playlist, one or moreof the songs in that list may be a protected MPEG-4 audio file. Someusers attempting to play or access that file may be unable to use it.

In one embodiment, wikis may be used in conjunction with feed formattedcontent. FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a methodfor providing a wiki at 1200. Feed formatted content is received at1202. A content and wiki save option is provided at 1204. Save input isreceived at 1206. At least a portion of the feed formatted content iscopied to a wiki at 1208. In one embodiment, the content is saved to anew wiki. In one embodiment, the content may be saved to an existingwiki. In one embodiment, the save input may include a wiki identifier,and the content may be saved to an existing or new wiki based on thewiki identifier. A list of available wikis may be included as at least aportion of the content and wiki save option.

In one embodiment, individual wikis can be presented in a wiki feed asfeed items. Scrolling over the items, or clicking on them can present apreview of the wiki. Alternatively, by clicking on a feed item aseparate movable preview window can be displayed. In another embodimentif an update is made to a wiki, a separate alert window can bedisplayed, with a link to the wiki. This alert may be posted to eachuser associated with the wiki, or only those who have chosen to receiveupdate alerts.

Recommendation comments and accompanying feed item can be saved to arecommendation wiki with the content and contents saved within the wikifile or the comments and link to the contents saved within the wikifile. Recommendation comments may also appear in an alert window and caninclude a link to the recommended feed item.

FIG. 13 a-c illustrates schematic diagrams of embodiments of web-basedwindows 1300 a-c. Web-based window 1300 a may include header 1302, whichmay include a minimize or close control 1304 operable to close orminimize the window. Web-based window 1300 a may be moved, for example,by clicking and dragging on header 1302. Web-based window may include afooter 1306, which may include a reshape control 1308 operable to resizeand reshape window 1300 a. A web-based window may include a scrollcontrol 1310 operable to scroll the contents of the window.Alternatively, a conventional scroll bar may be included on the window.As another alternative, the contents of the window may scroll inresponse to mouse position within the window. For example, as the mouseapproaches the bottom of the viewable portion, or approaches footer1306, the contents may scroll upward. Similarly it may scroll upward asheader 1302 is approached.

FIG. 13 b illustrates an embodiment of a resized version 13 a, hereshown as a single item window. The window may be resized based on resizeinput, for example clicking and dragging the mouse up or down while themouse is positioned over the bottom of the window. FIG. 13 c illustratesa resized version of 13 a or 13 c. In this embodiment, the contentsdisplayed include a half-displayed element. In one embodiment, thewindow size may automatically snap to the closest window size. Resizinga feed reader may result in a different number of feed items beingdisplayed than prior to the resize input. A scroll number may bedetermined based on the number of items fully displayed. In oneembodiment, the scroll element is operable to scroll the number of itemsfully displayed within web-based window 1300 c.

FIG. 14 illustrates a schematic diagram of one embodiment of a browseremploying a web-based window system at 1400. In one embodiment, theweb-based window system may include a contact window 1402, a feedswindow 1404, a bookmarks window 1406, an alerts window 1408, a mainviewer window 1410, a navigation bar 1412, feedbucket navigationelements 1414, and item state navigation elements 1416.

In one embodiment, contacts window 1402 may display a user's contactswithin a social network. Groups may also be displayed. Selecting acontact may display information associated with the contact.

In one embodiment, feeds window 1404 may display a user's subscribedfeeds. In one embodiment, a selected feedbucket navigation element 1414may affect feeds window 1404, for example by displaying only feedswithin the selected feedbucket. A feedbucket may represent a folder thatcontains feeds or folders and feeds in a hierarchical directorystructure. Alternatively, a feedbucket may represent a set of taggedfeeds. In another embodiment, a feedbucket may represent some otheraggregated and/or filtered set of feeds or feed items.

In one embodiment, quicklinks, or bookmarks window 1406 may display auser's bookmarks. Selecting a bookmark may cause the browser window tonavigate to the selected bookmark or a new window to open to theselected bookmark.

In one embodiment, alerts window 1408 may display alerts to a user. Forexample, alerts may include received recommendations, social networkbirthday reminders, wiki updates, or the like. In one embodiment, analert window may appear only if an alert is associated with the user.

In one embodiment, items within a web-based window may be draggedbetween windows, or onto other elements of the system. For example, afeed may be dragged onto a feedbucket navigation element 1414. In oneembodiment, this may cause the feed to be added to the feedbucket. Byway of another example, a feed item from main viewer window 1410 may bedragged onto a contact in contacts window 1402. In one embodiment, thismay recommend the item to the contact. Alternatively, a user may alsodrag the feed item to their saved items, or to another feed under theuser's control.

In one embodiment the feedbucket navigation elements 1414 could be inthe border of the movable feed viewer widget. In one embodiment,pressing a launch button in a border of the viewer could launch aseparate browser with the feed viewer widget. The browser would capturethe current height and width setting of the viewer, or alternatively setit to a standard height and width.

In one embodiment there can be an interface element that would allow afeed directory to be called up. In one embodiment, if called up in thelaunched browser the directory would pop in front and go away once adirectory selection is made. In another embodiment, the directory viewercan be launched as a separate movable viewer and positioned next to thefeed item viewer. A quicklinks list could also be launched in a separateviewer. An alert window could also be launched as a separate window frombuttons on the border of the feed item viewer, or alternatively thealert window can be launched responsive to a recommended item or updatedwiki. In one embodiment, the alert window can pop up in the launchedviewer window. A feed directory could also be launched from a button onthe window so new feeds could be selected or subscribed to for viewingin the feed viewer widget. An interface element, for example a button,could close all open windows.

The web-based window system may allow users to rearrange, resize, openand close web-based windows, providing a customized environment. FIG. 15illustrates a flowchart of one embodiment of a process for updating aweb-based window system at 1500. The server side provides a web-basedwindow interface at 1502. The client side receives the web-based windowinterface at 1504. The client side provides interface change input at1506. The server side receives the interface change input 1508. At atime subsequent to receiving the interface change input at 1506, theserver side provides an updated web-based window interface at 1510. Theclient side receives the updated web-based window interface at 1512. Forexample, each web-based window served to the user may includeinformation regarding its position on the browser, it's open or closedstate, its size, and/or other configuration information. When a userchanges an aspect of the configuration, an update on the information maybe transmitted to the server and stored in association with the user.

FIG. 16 illustrates a schematic diagram of one embodiment of a browseremploying a web-based window system at 1600. The system may include asystem dock 1602. System dock 1602 may include interface controls suchas main viewer control 1604, and streaming media player control 1606.Main viewer control 1604 may, for example, open, close, and/or bringmain viewer window 1410 above other windows. Streaming media playercontrol 1606 may, for example, open, close, and/or bring streaming mediaplayer 10002 above other windows. Alternatively, streaming media playercontrol 1606 may launch a separate browser window with streaming mediaplayer 500 a-b. Controls on system dock 1602 may be displayeddifferently based upon such information as whether their associatedweb-based window is open, closed, active, hidden, and/or whether newinformation is awaiting display, or the like.

The system may include one or more featured content windows 1608. In oneembodiment, web-based windows may be provided that do not allow moving,resizing, or closing, or some combination of those. For example, afeatured content window may be provided that the user is not allowed toclose. Featured content window may display standard display or textadvertising, recommended feed formatted content, or the like.

The system may include a movable preview window 1610. For example, afeed item or wiki in main viewer window 1604 may be clicked to displaypreview window 1610. Alternatively, a link or button may be providedassociated with the feed item to launch the preview window 1610. In oneembodiment, clicking on a second item or control associated with theitem may launch a second preview window 1610. Alternatively, there maybe a limit to the number of preview windows displayed, the previewwindow may display content associated with the second item based on auser input. In one embodiment, the preview window may display optionssuch as save, recommend, share, view, rating, or the like that whenselected trigger the appropriate action associated with the item. Forexample, a user may select to preview a feed item. The preview windowdisplays including an option to rate and an option to save. The user mayselect to rate the feed item using the rate option, this may trigger asignal to a server to store the rating associated with the feed item.The user may select the save option, this may trigger a signal to theserver to store a save association between the user and the feed item. Apreview window may contain text, HTML, multimedia, or the like.

In one embodiment, the web based windows can include a lock buttonpositioned somewhere, for example, a border region of the viewer. Forexample, adjacent the lower right corner there may be an input elementthat would allow the window to be locked at a set height and width.Alternatively, a window may expand or contract automatically based onthe loaded contents. For example, a feed viewer widget may display afeed with four items, then when a feed with ten items is loaded the feedviewer widget may expand to support the larger number. Alternatively,one or more preference memory buttons could be positioned in the viewerborder region to allow a user to go back to a preferred length and widthviewer setting. When locked, the viewer can be unlocked as soon as auser clicks on the expand arrow to resize the viewer.

In one embodiment, web-based windows may house remotely hosted web-basedapplications. For example, remote HTML, flash, java or the like may bedisplayed within the web-based window frame. A user may be provided withthe opportunity to add such a web-based window by specifying the remotelocation or by selecting it from a list of known locations. In oneembodiment, the web-based window may provide the application it holdswith access to certain information, for example IAP information. Forexample, a web-based window may be provided limited or complete accessto feed formatted content associated with the user or with the IAPsystem. In this manner an API may be provided for developers to createnew web-based window functionality for use within the system withoutrequiring access to the system server. Alternatively, applications maybe uploaded to the system server.

In one embodiment, a personal podcast server system may be incorporatedwith the web-based window system to allow users access to theirmultimedia files. In one embodiment, additional files may be accessibleto the file server and their file locations provided. Web-based windowsmay interact with the file location information to provide a familiardesktop paradigm, but on a webtop, or web-based desktop manner. Aweb-based window may, in one embodiment, display shared folders.Selecting a shared folder may display that folder's contents. Selectinga file within the web-based window may provide a download option for thefile, or attempt to open the file within the browser. In one embodiment,if one or more files are selected, the file server may zip or otherwisecompress, and/or encrypt files before transmission.

In one embodiment, web-based windows may communicate between each other.A selection within one may affect the display of another. FIG. 17illustrates a flowchart of one embodiment of a process for updating aweb-based window system at 1700. A server provides a first and secondweb-based window at 1702. A client receives a web-based window interfaceincluding the first and second web-based windows at 1704. The clientprovides interface change input associated with the first web-basedwindow at 1706. The server receives the interface change input at 1708.The server provides updated content to the second web-based window at1710. The client receives an updated web-based window interface at 1712.For example, clicking on a feed entry in feed window 1404 may causeitems within that feed to be displayed within main viewer window 1410.In one embodiment, clicking on a feed entry in feed window 1404 mayprovide the interface change input that updates the main viewer window1404. Alternatively, clicking on a feed entry in feed window 1404 maytrigger the main viewer window 1410 to provide the interface changeinput to the server. Navigation bar 1412 may also communicate with theweb-based windows. For example, clicking on a feedbucket navigationelement 1414 may cause the main viewer window 1410 to display itemswithin the selected feedbucket. Likewise, selection of an item statenavigation element 1416 may cause only items of a particular item stateto be displayed in main viewer window 1410, such as new, viewed, saved,read, or recommended. In one embodiment, the second viewer may bepopulated based on a rating. The rating may be based on a userselection, a profile characteristic response database, or the like.

FIG. 18 illustrates a flowchart of one embodiment of a process forproviding feed formatted content at 1800. A user receives a web-basedwindow having a first size at 1802. The web-based window displays acertain number of feed items based on the first size. The user providesa scroll input command, and a scroll of the feed items is executed basedon the first size at 1804. The user provides an interface change inputat 1806, this input altering the size of the web-based window to asecond size. The web-based window may display a different number of feeditems based on the second size. The user provides a scroll input commandat 1808, a scroll of the feed items is executed based on the second size1810. For example, main viewer window may display eight feed items whenfirst displayed to the user. A selection on the scroll control maytrigger a scroll of eight feed items. The user may resize the mainviewer window to display two feed items. A subsequent selection on thescroll control may trigger a scroll of two feed items.

An embodiment of the webtop, web-based window system may be developed inlanguages such as flash or java, and much or all may be developed usingAJAX. One embodiment of much of the discussed functionality is providedin Appendix 4, but this is only exemplary and should not be viewed aslimiting.

In one embodiment, a webtop such as that displayed at 1600 may include alogo or sponsorship as a background 1612. The sponsorship may, forexample, display a company logo such as that of McDonald's@. In oneembodiment, the webtop sponsorship may be based upon user profileinformation, characteristic profile response data, geographic regionidentity, other demographics, or the like. In one embodiment, webtopsponsorship, or other sponsorship or featured content may be excludedfrom a user's interface based on a payment received from the user. Forexample, a user may pay a monthly fee in order not to receive featuredcontent and to have the ability to select a webtop background.

Sponsorship or advertising may also be text of display ad on the webtop.For example, it may be presented on a feed reader window such as thatdisplayed at 1614. In one embodiment, a scroll request at scroll control1310 may change or update the displayed sponsorship. Sponsorship may bedetermined based on the displayed feed items, a determined geographicregion identity, determined demographics, time of day, or the like. Inone embodiment, the description or preview of a feed item may alsoinclude a sponsorship. Additionally, a browser window may be framed whena destination link associated with a feed item is selected. The framingmay include a sponsorship. One or more of these sponsorships may becoordinated to be the same or different. Sponsors may be selected onfeed formatted content category, keyword, or topic. For example, asponsor can select a specific subject mater within a topic such as theSt. Louis Cardinals within sports. Title and description may be scannedor indexed to determine such targeting.

One embodiment of the present invention provides a multi-threaded feedprocessing daemon. A database of feeds is maintained. This database maybe located at a server, distributed out among multiple servers or clientcomputers, or some combination of these methods. A first thread managescollecting and selecting feeds to process from the database of feeds.For example, the thread may select those feeds that are marked in thedatabase as stale.

Staleness of feeds may be based upon a variety of factors. For example,some feeds may include a time to live value that indicates the frequencyat which they should be updated. This time to live value may be includedto calculate staleness. Some feeds or feed sources publish a policy,either in the feed or on a web site, of the greatest frequency at whichthat feed source may be accessed. This also may be used to calculatestaleness. In one embodiment, the frequency at which new items arepublished within the feed may be used to calculate staleness. Forexample, feeds may begin by being set to stale after thirty minutes. If,when the feed is requested after the half hour, new items have beenpublished, the time to mark stale may be decreased, for example, totwenty-five minutes. Alternatively, if no items have been published, thetime to mark stale may be increased to, for example, forty-five minutes.In one embodiment, the time to mark stale is based upon a historicalwindow of feed updates. For example, if a feed has had fourteen newitems published over a one-week period, the time to mark stale may beset to twelve hours. In one embodiment, the frequency of recent postsmay be weighted more heavily than in the past. For example, if a feedhas been updated three times in the last six days, but two updates havebeen made in the past hour, the time to mark stale may be lower than theaverage staleness time of two days.

A second thread may be used to request the feeds from their externalsource. In one embodiment, a sleep time between web requests may beincluded within this thread. This may be required in order tosuccessfully process multiple requests from a remote server as a burstof requests may be viewed as a denial of service attack, the remoteserver may not be able to handle the load, or for other various reasons.In one embodiment, the thread may sleep between requests to the samedomain, but continue processing requests for other domains. In oneembodiment, the results of the remote feed requests may be stored in anarray, for example an array of strings.

A third thread may be used to process the results collected by thesecond thread. This thread may be responsible for inserting the feedinto a database. For example, a result of a web request made by thesecond thread may be parsed, formatted, cleansed or the like beforebeing inserted into the database.

One embodiment of the present invention provides multiple statuses offeed items. A user subscribed to a feed may have a variety of filtersthey may wish to apply to feed items within a feed to which they aresubscribed. The user may also wish to view counts based on variousfilters. For example, a user may wish to see or know the number of itemsthat they have not yet viewed. A viewed item may be one that has not yetbeen displayed on the user interface. A second status of feed item maybe a viewed status. A viewed item is one that has been displayed on theuser interface. A third status of feed item may be a read status. A readitem is one that the user has clicked on. Clicking on a feed item maydisplay the description associated with the feed item, launch a linkassociated with the feed item, it may perform both, or the like.Additional filters that may be applied to feed items are saved, receivedrecommendations, and viewed recommendations.

One embodiment of the present invention provides feed item archiving.Feed items that are no longer in a feed may be stored in a database. Inone embodiment, all feed items may be stored one table with a flagindicating current feed items. Alternatively, feed items may be storedin two tables; a current feed items table and an archived feed itemstable. As the feed daemon processes each feed, it may copy feed itemsfrom the current feed item table to the archived feed item table whenthe feed item is no longer present in the feed.

FIG. 19 illustrates a schematic diagram of one embodiment of a browseremploying a web-based window system of the present invention at 1900.The web-based window system, or webtop, may display the windows, orwidgets, based on user preferences. A webtop is shown including widgetsincluding alert notification widget 1914, alert widget 1916, and feedreader widget 1902. Other widgets, such as wiki, quicklink, or mediaplayer, fewer or no widgets may also be displayed on the webtop.

One embodiment of the present invention provides for maintaining userpreferences. One set of user preferences that may be maintained iswidget settings. In one embodiment, a user may have an arbitrary numberof widgets associated with their user account, and those widgets mayhave various settings associated with them. Some settings may be commonacross all widgets, while others may be specific to widget type. Forexample, each widget may have position information indicating where onthe screen it is to be displayed, height information and widthinformation. Similarly each widget may have an open, closed, minimizedor maximized status. Some widgets may include visual adjustments to paneposition or the like while those settings are unnecessary in otherwidgets. A widget type may also be considered to be a setting of awidget. In one embodiment, one or more tables may store userpreferences. A user preference table may be dedicated to widgetsettings, or widget settings may be contained in a general userpreferences table. If widget settings are stored in a general userpreferences table, the table may include a column indicating the type ofuser preference, for example a type might be widget settings. In oneembodiment, when a user requests to view the webtop, user preferencesassociated with their account are selected. As the webtop processesthrough the user preferences, if a user preference represents a widget,a new widget is instantiated and given the settings associated with theuser preference.

For example, a user setting may indicate that a widget is a feed readerwidget that is currently maximized, when unmaximized should have aplacement fifty pixels from the left side of the screen and twentypixels from the top of the screen, when unmaximized should have a widthof seven hundred pixels and a height of four hundred pixels. Further,feed reader 1902 is shown including a three-pane layout. Feed listdivider 1908 separates the feed list from the feed viewing. Preview panedivider 1910 separates the feed items from the feed item preview, ordescription. User preferences may include the specifications that thefeed list divider should be one hundred fifty pixels from the leftborder of the widget, and the preview pane divider should be two hundredpixels from the top of the widget.

In one embodiment, the webtop may be configured for an individual userbased on one or more feed formatted configuration files. For example, asingle XML file may include user profile information, widget size andlocation, and the like. The same file, or a different file may thenprovide a list of subscribed feeds to populate the user's feed viewer.Similar requests may be made or the data included in a single file forquicklinks, wikis, and the like.

In one embodiment, a feed system may include a variety of recommendationmethods. For example, a concierge user may send feed or feed itemrecommendations. A concierge user may be an actual user, or an automateduser, or a combination of the two. For example, an automated process maymake the recommendations, but messaging responses to the user from otherend users may be managed by one or more individuals. The concierge usermay be connected to the user through a social network. In oneembodiment, the user does not have the option whether to accept theconcierge user as a friend in the social network. The user may also notbe able to remove the concierge user as a friend. Alternatively, theconcierge user may maintain the standard rules of friendship in a socialnetwork. For example a friendship request may be required, as well as anacceptance. The user may also remove the friendship with the conciergeuser.

Another method of recommending feeds or feed items is to send a systemalert. An alert may be sent to a user without a recommending user.

Again referencing FIG. 19, one embodiment of recommending feed formattedcontent is displayed. The webtop includes an alert notification 1914.When the user has clicked on the alert notification and an alert 1916 isdisplayed. Clicking on view link 1918 may launch a new browser windowcontaining the linked story 408. Alternatively, clicking the view linkmay display the feed information 1920 in the feed reader 1902. Clickingon the feed information displays a preview, for example a description ora linked page, in the preview panel.

Another method of recommending feeds includes providing a semi-subscribestatus to one or more feeds. A feed to which a user is semi-subscribedmay be included in their feed subscription list. The feed may include avisual indicator that it is not currently subscribed to by the user. Forexample, the feeds 1904 are displayed differently than feeds 1906. Theuser may interact with the feed as normal, but be given the opportunityto subscribe to the feed or remove it from semi-subscribe status.

In one embodiment, an interface may facilitate the process of filteringaggregated feed formatted content. The filtered content may be displayedon the interface or a filtered feed may be provided for consumption byanother service or interface.

For example, a site may aggregate news information from variouspublications, authors, and blogs. Each of these sources may have aparticular bias or slant to the information they publish. An interfaceoption may be provided to filter the news based on one or more of thesebiases. For example, a draggable sliding scale may be provided allowingthe user to select how central, left, or right-leaning the storiesincluded may be. In one embodiment, a keyword or subject filter may beemployed in combination with the bias indicator. Advertising orsponsorship of a website or interface displaying aggregated informationbased on a bias indicator may be provided in a variety of ways. Forexample, advertisers may select to target advertisements to usersviewing news from a certain bias. A fundraising dinner for the NationalRifle Association may, for example, be advertised to users viewing newsfrom a conservative bias. Additionally, the National Rifle Associationmay select to target based on keywords or subjects associated withhandguns. Double confirmation targeting and targeting based ongeographic region identity may also be employed in conjunction withtargeting based on bias selection.

One embodiment of the present invention includes subscriber affiliationindication. For example, a user may have a profile page or a homepage,such as a profile page on a social network site. That page may includeone or more visual queues indicating one or more feed subscriptions heldby the associated user. For example, a brand such as AXE® body spray maypublish a feed related to the “Order of the Serpentine” marketingcampaign. A user that subscribes to that feed may have an Order of theSerpentine insignia displayed on their profile page. In one embodiment,subscriber affiliation indication may be displayed for all feeds a useris subscribed to. Alternatively, the user may select which affiliationsthey wish to display. The visual queue indicating subscription may be animage from a link indicated in the feed, or the site hosting the profilepage may store associations between feeds and visual queues. The sitemay charge the feed publisher to include the subscriber affiliationindication. In one embodiment, the queue may be audio or video asopposed to a static visual.

In one embodiment, the prioritization of feed item delivery via the oneor more methods of communication maintained by the IAP may be based on auser's subscription settings, time relevancy of the feed item,recommendations, and social network database 2560. Recommendations maybe weighted based upon closeness of relationship, a user's reaction toprior recommendations from the same source, as well as whether it was adirect recommendation to the user, a recommendation to friends, or ageneral recommendation. Feed item prioritization may also be based on afrequency factor. A frequency factor is the frequency items are postedat the feed source. Feed items may also be prioritized based on therecentness they were posted, as well as the quality of the feed source.The quality of the feed source may be based on the number of subscribersto a feed, the age of the feed or site publishing the feed, a thirdparty ranking of the site, such as the Google or Alexa rank of the sitepublishing the feed.

In one embodiment, each of the feeds in a viewer may include a ratingselector, for example zero through five stars. A user may rate eachfeed, or only certain feeds, for example those they are subscribed to.Pre-populated, or semi-subscribed feeds may be pre-rated based oncharacteristic profile feed response data or other data. Once a userbegins interacting with the feeds the ratings may be adjusted based ontheir feed response data.

In one embodiment, feed item prioritization may be based on a weighteduser rating. Many factors may be used individually or combined to createa weighted user rating. For example, the number of subscribers to a userrecommendation feed may be one factor. Another factor for creating aweighted user rating may include a ratio between the number of feeditems viewed and/or read and the number that the user chooses torecommend. For example, a user who has read one hundred feed items andrecommended eight may be weighted lower than a user who has read onehundred feed items and only recommended two.

In one embodiment, the IAP may include one or more public or semi-publicdata feeds presenting individual user or aggregate user relevanceinformation. For example, a feed may be available for each userincluding the feed items read by that user. Another feed may includesome or all of the items rated by the users. Using the IAP interface, auser may mark a feed item as recommended. The feed associated with thatuser's recommendations then makes that recommendation immediatelyavailable for posting on any other site or service pulling from thatfeed. By simply reading and rating news in a reader, multiplepresentation points on a variety of network nodes may be affected.

Aggregate relevance information may be presented in one or more feeds aswell. For example, a relevance data feed may be available for eachexternal feed aggregated by the system. The relevance data feed may onlypublish feed items from the original external feed that meet certainthreshold requirements. Alternatively, the feed items may includerelevance measurement information such as the number of people who haverecommended or rated each feed item, the number of views and reads, orthe like.

In one embodiment, such feeds may require a username, or username andpassword to receive access. The username or username and passwordcombination may be included in the feed URL, or may be included in anHTTP post requesting the feed. Usernames and or passwords required toaccess these data feeds may be standard IAP usernames, they may be someother username or identifier associated with the IAP user account, orthere may be separate usernames or identifiers exclusively created foraccessing such feeds. For example, developer accounts may be createdwith identifiers associated with such accounts that are included in thefeed requests.

One embodiment of the present invention includes a feed display badge.Feed display badges are provided for easy and aesthetic display of feedformatted content. Feed display badges may be incorporated into webpages by adding HTML code referencing the location of the badge. Suchpages may include blogs, social network profiles, or other web sites. Inalternative embodiments, badges may be included in desktop interfaces orapplications, or may be included in other display environments such as,for example, cell phones or PDAs.

A feed display badge may be designed in Flash, javascript, java, or someother language that includes the ability to request a feed and reformatit for presentational purposes. A feed display badge, or badge, mayinclude one or more feed URLs hardcoded within the badge. Alternatively,the HTML, javascript, or other badge inclusion code may include one ormore feed URLs. As another alternative, the badge may be associated witha user account or the badge inclusion code may include reference to auser account. An interface may be provided allowing the user to specifythe one or more feeds to be included in the badge display.

Other editorial or aggregation techniques may be used to determine whatinformation is displayed in a badge. For example, a feed reader mayinclude one or more feeds of information regarding a user's feed readinginteractions. Feeds may be available for all items viewed, read, orrated in some manner. A badge may be configurable to display one or moreof these. A badge may display any of the feed formatted content andincorporate many of the sponsorship methods described.

In one embodiment, the feed formatted content displayed within a badgemay vary based upon the user viewing the badge. For example, a cookiemay indicate that a user viewing a badge is also a user of a feed readerused to generate the items displayed in the badge. The badge or feedformatted content selected from the feed reader may be filtered ordisplayed differently based upon the reading interactions of the viewinguser. A feed item that has been read by the viewing user may be omittedor visually indicated in some manner.

The visual display of a badge may be configurable. For example, badgeinclusion code may specify background color, font color, shading,highlighting, optional or required text elements, images or multimediafiles to be included in the display, or the like. In one embodiment,limited configuration options may be provided on a free badge. The freebadge may include one or more advertisements, sponsorships, or linksindicating where to get such a badge. A paid version may exclude one ormore of these and include additional configuration options.

One example of potential badge providers or redistributors is politicalcampaigns. A political campaign may provide a badge displaying one ormore photos of the candidate. The photo may be static, or the photos maybe drawn from feed formatted content such as a feed from the onlineservice Flickr. The badge may also include feed formatted content fromthe candidate's blog. The badge may additionally or alternativelyinclude news items related to the campaign. A badge provision servicemay allow the campaign to configure the display of the badge and selectthe feed formatted content to be provided. The badge provision servicewould then provide redistribution code to the campaign allowing thecampaign to promote the badge, for example on their campaign website. Asupporter may then include the badge on his or her own blog, desktop, orthe like.

Badges may be provided by original content providers, contentaggregators, an IAP, an advertiser, a personal podcast server serviceprovider, or any other party that provides or collects feed formattedcontent. For example, a badge may be provided to display what music auser has been listening to on an online service or on a desktop mediaplayer that reports or records listening information that is accessibleas feed formatted content.

In one embodiment, badges may be provided to facilitate cooperativepurchasing. A user of a cooperative purchase system may select a badgethat displays all available contingent purchase opportunities, purchaseopportunities with upcoming deadlines or thresholds, or purchaseopportunities the user is participating in. The badge may reflect theopportunities, status associated with the opportunities, or the like.

One embodiment of the present invention includes a question and answermanagement system and the publishing of one or more feeds associatedwith the system. A database is maintained that minimally includesquestions and answers. Two types of users access the system, searchusers and expert users. The same user may be both a search user and anexpert user.

A search user is presented with the ability to search the database ofquestions and answers, for example using a standard search text box andsubmit button. Returned results, if they exist, are displayed to thesearch user. Based on the results, the search user determines if theirquestion or search has been satisfied. If the search user determinesthat the results are not to their satisfaction, they may submit aquestion to the database. In one embodiment, they may include an emailaddress or some other form of contact information in order to receive analert when their question is answered. Alternatively, the service mayprovide a feed that will publish the answer to their question when it isentered. In one embodiment, one or more administrative users may reviewsubmitted questions to determine those that will be answered.

An expert user has the ability to submit answers to the systemassociated with received questions. Access to an answer submissioninterface may require a password or some other type of authentication.Alternatively, any user may submit answers. Feeds of new questions maybe published; in one embodiment multiple feeds may be published based onan associated question subject. An expert user may subscribe to the newquestion feed, to a subject based new question feed, or may create acustom feed based on one or more keywords or keyword and subject. In oneembodiment, an administrative user may review answers prior topublication within the system.

One or more feeds of recently published answers may be made available.The feeds may again be associated with a question subject, or may befiltered based on keywords. In one embodiment, the database may alsoinclude a keyword field associated with the questions and answers. Thekeyword field allows search or expert users the opportunity to enterassociated or synonymous words to increase the likelihood of a searchmatch.

A variety of additions or modifications may be made to the search andexpert system. For example, a question may have more than one answerassociated with it. The service provider may additionally provide abadge that displays information from one or more of the feeds publishedby the system. Returning to the political campaign example, the campaignsite may include an “ask the candidate” section where constituents mayask question on policy, personality, or the like. The candidate or arepresentative may act as the expert user and reply to submittedinquiries. By supplying a badge for supporters to post on blogs andother sites, the entries into the search and expert system may reach agreater audience.

The search and expert system may be hosted with a content provider ormay be provided in an ASP model. The same central question and answerdatabase may be accessed over multiple sites.

One embodiment of the present invention includes a method of marketingmultimedia. First, at least one expert in a social network isdetermined. This determination may be based upon statistics collectedrelating to the way users interact with available feeds, multimedia,products, or the like presented via the social network or elsewhere. Theexpert may be determined based on the speed at which they identify itemsthat will eventually become popular. The determination may also be basedon the accuracy with which their tastes have matched what becomepopular. In one embodiment, a multimedia list with ranking options maybe provided to the expert. A ranking input associated with multimediaprograms is received from the expert. At least one disseminatorassociated with the expert is determined. A disseminator may be a userin a social network with above a certain threshold number ofrelationships, or some other indication of broad influence. Theassociation between the expert and disseminator may be, for example, arelationship in the social network. Multimedia programs are provided tothe disseminator based on the expert ranking input, the provision mayinclude notice of the expert's identity and or ranking. The multimediaprogram may be provided or displayed in a disseminator profile in thesocial network. Play requests may be received from at least one viewerof the disseminator profile, and a predetermined portion of themultimedia program may be played responsive to the requests. Determiningan expert in a social network may be based upon whether a user of thesocial network is subscribed to at least a portion of a predeterminedlist of feeds. Determining at least one expert in a social network maybe based upon whether the user fits a predetermined expert profile basedon survey information. Determining a disseminator associated with themaven may be based upon finding a user who is associated as a friend ofthe expert in the social network. A full version purchase option may beprovided associated with the displayed multimedia, or responsive to thereceived play request.

One embodiment of the present invention includes a method of marketingmultimedia. At least one expert associated with a class of multimedia isdetermined. A multimedia program with ranking options is provided to theexpert. Ranking input associated with the multimedia program is receivedfrom the expert. At least one disseminator profile in at least onesocial network is associated with the expert ranking and multimediaprogram. Play requests are received from at least one viewer of thedisseminator profile, and a predetermined portion of the multimediaprogram is played responsive to the requests. A full version purchaseoption may be provided associated with the displayed multimedia, orresponsive to the received play request.

One embodiment of the present invention provides a method of sharinguser-associated information online. A user profile is provided. Files onthe user's computer are indexed to the user profile. An access requestis received from a second user. One ore more links associated with thefiles on the user's computer are displayed at a profile interface. Afile request is received based on one or more of the displayed links. Atleast a portion of a user file is provided based on the file request.For example, a user may run a personal podcast server on their homecomputer that selectively shares their music collection. The personalpodcast may be associated with a user profile on a web site. A seconduser may view the first user's profile at the web site. One portion ofthe user profile may include links to the songs shared on the personalpodcast. When the second user clicks on a link, at least a portion ofthe song file may be provided. For example, a music player may beopened, and a twenty second clip of the song provided. Files may beaudio, video, text or any other file type. In one embodiment, a file mayhave a portion specified as the portion to be provided in response tofile requests. This specified portion may be a segment selected fromwithin the file, or may be added to the file.

One embodiment of the present invention provides a method of sharinguser-associated information online. A user profile is provided.User-associated information is indexed to the user profile. An accessrequest is received from a second user. One or more links to theuser-associated information is displayed at a profile interface. Aninformation copy request is received based on one of the displayed link.At least a portion of the user information is indexed to the second userbased on the information copy request. For example, user associatedinformation may be a quicklink, feed, folder of feeds, feed category,feed item, or the like. A copy request may copy the user-associatedinformation in the database, or it may link the second user to the firstuser's information in order to reflect future changes made by that user.

In one embodiment, users may view a list of other users that have thesame user-associated information. For example, a user may view a profilethat indicates a second user is subscribed to a certain feed. The usermay select to then view a list of all people currently subscribed tothat certain feed. Similarly, users may be viewed based on songs orvideos shared, articles saved, quicklinks, recommendations, or the like.

In one embodiment, a method of online advertising is provided. Themethod includes providing at least one ad in feed formatted content,wherein the ad is associated with a location multimedia link. The ad canbe provided as a feed item within a feed. For example, a bar feed canprovide feed items for different bars or for a single bar. A user canthen select one of the ads by clicking or other selection method. Arequest to display the ad is sent from the user communication device,for example, computer, PDA, cell phone, to a control server. The controlserver can then provide the user with location information to a serverassociated with the advertisement that may stream multimedia associatedwith the link directly to the user communication device. For example, abar may provide a feed with a link which when selected streams a livevideo feed of the bar. In one embodiment, an advertiser can controlfunctionality of the link. For example, via an advertiser interface, anadvertiser can send ad controller input to the control server. Based onthe ad controller input the multimedia link can be enabled or disabled.Alternatively, for example, an entity that runs several entertainmentestablishments, for example, bars, can select from a list via theinterface, which bars to link to for the live feed. The ad controllerinput may also designate user profile characteristics or geographiclocation or demographic information that would be used to trigger linkoptions. For example, A bar owner with more than one bar can controlwhich bar video is streamed based on the location of the user requestingthe ad. In this example, a comparison can be made based on thegeographic location determination of the communication device and thebar location. Users requesting the ad would be streamed the video fromthe bar that is closer to the user's location. The geographic locationdetermination can be made based on IP address translation, GPS, userprofile information, signal triangulation, or the like. Alternativelythe ad control input could include triggers based on other measurableinput, including, amount of sales that are computed for that night,input of the number of patrons in the bar, input from a motion sensor,input determined from scanning frames of the bar video and determining anumber of people in the bar, weight sensors on the bar to indicate howmany bar dancers are performing, heat sensors, input of the noise levelin the bar, like signals, sensors, or inputs, or any combination ofthese.

In one embodiment, a newspaper or other website could provide listingsof classified ads in one or a plurality of viewers. Feed items can bepodcast or videocast items that represent a classified ad. The feed itemmay be clicked on by the user who wants to know more, and the associatedvideo or audio will play. The classified ads may be prioritized base ondouble confirmation targeting. For example, ads for furniture may beprioritized based on double confirmation geotargeting so that if profileand IP-to-geography information indicate a user lives in Evanston, Ill.,classified ads would be feed items targeted to Evanston, Ill. wouldappear first in a classified ad feed.

In one embodiment, a third party advertiser interface can allow thirdparty advertisers to select streaming feeds for advertisement insertion.For example, a third party advertiser, such as, Miller Brewing Company,can select Joe's Bar feed and for a fee insert advertisements either inthe feed by introducing, splicing, or overlaying their own multimedia ortext content into the stream, or as the skin for the viewer which isdisplayed at the requesting user's communication device. In oneembodiment, a user can send a recommendation of the feed formatted ad toa friend via a social network. The control server would receive arequest to recommend the feed to the friend and index the ad to thefriend. The control server can provide the recommendation information tocustomize the third party ad. In the example above, when the friend, forexample Bob, selects the recommended ad that was sent by Jim via thesocial network, the inserted ad would be customized to say “Hey Bob,Join Jim over at Joe's Bar for an icy cold Miller.” An establishment maycontrol a plurality of bars and may send a feed based on the geographiclocation of the requestor. A general party feed may dynamically selectthe link to a feed or multimedia stream of the party closest to you.

The feed system may provide as advertiser interface. This interface mayallow the advertiser to view the live feeds and insert bar approved adsin the feed. Inserted ads may be displayed based on profile information.

These and other combinations of the methods and systems may also becontemplated by one skilled in the art, and as such are in the spirit ofthe invention. For example, feed formatted content may be sponsored bydetermining at least one characteristic profile for the users based onthe characteristic input, receiving a response associated with feedformatted content from at least one user having the determinedcharacteristic profile, recording the response associated with the feedformatted content in a characteristic profiled response databaseassociated with the determined characteristic profile, and determiningsponsorship of feed formatted content based the profiled responsedatabase. The sponsorship may then be determined based on thecharacteristic profile, or a geographic region identity of the user.Such sponsorship may be displayed on a webtop or a badge.

By way of another example, prioritized feed items may be sponsored byassociating a user with a characteristic profile response database,prioritizing feed items within a user feed based on the characteristicprofile response database, or in one embodiment, additionally based on aweighted user rating. The feed items may then be sponsored based onproviding a sponsorship of the feed items based on the prioritization,receiving response data within the characteristic profile responsedatabase, and modifying the database based on the response data.Prioritization of the feed items is modified within the user feed basedmodified database, and a modified sponsorship of the feed items based onthe modified prioritization. The sponsorship of prioritized feeds may beprovided in a social network based on relationships therein, it may bedisplayed in redistributed badges, or displayed on a webtop.

By way of another example, live feeds from bars and other venues may beincluded in classified ad feeds that are displayed in semi-subscribestate to users of the IAP, and may be redistributed with badges. In oneembodiment, the live feed information could be presented in conjunctionwith a cooperative purchase opportunity to rent out a location orreserve a table.

The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms withoutdeparting from its spirit or essential characteristics. The describedembodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrativeand not restrictive.

1. A method of dynamic playlist creation comprising: receiving amultimedia playlist request including at least one multimedia locationindicator; determining at least one multimedia file location based onthe at least one multimedia location indicator; and providing amultimedia playlist including at least one of the determined multimediafile locations.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the multimedialocation indicator is associated with a podcast url.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the multimedia playlist request is received at a serverfrom a user; and wherein the provided multimedia playlist is providedfrom the server to the user.
 4. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising determining a geographic location associated with themultimedia playlist request; and providing a multimedia playlist basedon the determined geographic location.
 5. The method of claim 4, whereinthe at least one multimedia file location is determined based on thedetermined geographic location.
 6. The method of claim 4, furthercomprising determining at least one multimedia ad location based on thedetermined geographic location and providing the determined multimediaad location in the provided multimedia playlist.
 7. The method of claim1, further comprising determining a subject of the multimedia fileassociated with the determined multimedia file location, and determiningan ad based on the subject, wherein the multimedia playlist is providedwith the determined ad.
 8. The method of claim 6, further comprisingdetermining a subject of the multimedia file associated with thedetermined multimedia file location, and determining an ad based on thesubject, wherein the multimedia playlist is provided with the determinedad.
 9. A method of providing multimedia content, the method comprising:sending an authentication request to an authentication node including afirst set of user identification information; receiving anauthentication reply from the authentication node; providing multimedialocation information; receiving a multimedia content request from a usernode including a second set of user identification information;determining content ownership based on the first and second sets of useridentification information; and providing the multimedia content basedon the content request and the determination.
 10. The method of claim 9,wherein determining content ownership comprises sending anauthentication request to the authentication node; and receiving anauthentication reply.
 11. The method of claim 9, wherein the second setof user information includes an IP address.
 12. The method of claim 9,wherein providing the multimedia content comprises providing a portionof the multimedia content.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein a fullversion purchase option is provided in association with the portion ofthe multimedia content.
 14. The method of claim 9, further comprising:determining access availability, wherein providing the multimediacontent is based on access availability.
 15. The method of claim 9,further comprising receiving a recommendation request; indexing arecommendation recipient user to the multimedia content based on therecommendation request.
 16. A method of operating a feed reader, themethod comprising: receiving a resize input; resizing a feed reader froma first display including a first number of feed items to a seconddisplay including a second number of feed items based on the resizeinput, the first number different than the second number; receiving ascroll request; determining a scroll number based on the second number;and scrolling based on the determination.
 17. The method of claim 16,further comprising determining a sponsorship based on one or more of thefeed items within the second display.
 18. The method of claim 16,further comprising determining a sponsorship responsive to the scrollrequest.
 19. The method of claim 18, further comprising determining thesponsorship based on a geographic user identity associated with thescroll request.
 20. The method of claim 19, further comprisingdetermining the sponsorship based on time of day determination.